Mexico Imposes Tariffs On $3bn US Exports
In retaliation for the Trump administration announcing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from Mexico and much of the rest of the world, Mexico Tuesday imposed a series of tariffs against US exports to its market valued at $3bn. They’ll hike the price of products including pork, apples, potatoes, bourbon as well as different types of cheese.
The CNN reports that the tariffs range between 15 per cent and 25 per cent, and could raise the price of US goods by that amount, cutting deeply into US exports to its neighbour.
“It is necessary and urgent to impose measures equivalent to the measures implemented by” the US, said the statement issued by the Mexican government. Mexico had signalled last week that it intended to retaliate against the US steel and aluminium tariffs.
In addition to the agricultural products and bourbon, Mexico imposed tariffs on a variety of US steel products exports.
While Mexico exports more goods and services to the US than it buys, it is also the second largest market for US exports, buying $277bn worth of US goods and services last year, according to the Commerce Department.
That put it behind only Canada in terms of the value of US exports.
The tariffs imposed Tuesday will affect just more than one per cent of US exports to Mexico. But they’ll have a significant impact on the targeted US industries.
For example Mexico is the largest market for US pork exports according to the National Pork Producers Council, an industry trade group. It says that 25 per cent of US pork exports last year went to Mexico.
“A 20 per cent tariff eliminates our ability to compete effectively in Mexico,” said Jim Heimerl, the trade group’s president and a pork producer from Johnstown, Ohio. “This is devastating to my family and pork producing families across the United States.”
The group says that there are 110,000 US jobs directly tied to US pork exports to Mexico as well as to other countries.
NAFTA, the three nation trade pact, generally prevents the US, Mexico and Canada from imposing tariffs on imports from one another. But President Donald Trump has been a fierce critic of NAFTA, and the three countries are holding negotiations on possible changes to the free trade deal.
The Trump administration said it needs to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium imports because overcapacity in those industries globally is hurting US steel mills and aluminium smelters by driving down the prices of their products, forcing many out of business. The US Commerce Department says that constitutes a threat to US national security.
